“But behind every line of code, behind every post about the latest CSS tricks, behind every talk and video tutorial, there’s a real person. A person with a story, with struggles, with a life. And a few of those people are now here at the conference. That’s when you realize: the Web isn’t just a bunch of servers and websites. The Web is the people building it. The Web is community.
“That’s what’s so invaluable about conferences, about in-person events in general. They are like a cheat code, like a magic door – you enter, and suddenly, you find yourself on the inside of the conversation. The faces, the names, the people behind the blog posts – they become real. And you stop feeling like just being an observer of the Web community. You are now a part of it.
“…The real value of in-person conferences lies in what happens between the talks – in the conversations you have, the people you meet, and the friends you make.”
I really enjoyed Matthias Ott’s The Lifeblood of the Web. I may have to write my own post where I reflect on my own conference experiences.
